NOTHINGTRUMPSHEARINGRECORDSLIKETHESE:NEWBOMBTURKS

In 1991, Metallica released the black album and I gave right up on metal. It would be another 10 years before a little-known 4-piece from Atlanta called Mastodon would bring me back into the fold, and I craved music that didn’t rely on poofy hair, makeup or power ballads to sell records. So, over the course of the next two years, I delved as deeply into punk rock as I could. I learned very little: Jello Biafra taught me a few facts about politics, Sid Vicious showed me I should stay away from ugly chicks and heroin, and the Ramones played really fast. It really wasn’t until the 1993 release of the New Bomb Turks’ Destroy Oh Boy! that I felt like I had my finger on the pulse of something special.

JOB by NEW BOMB TURKS from THE BIG COMBO

Sure, NBT played fast, aggressive, tongue-in-cheek rock and roll, but it moved beyond basic punk rock, injecting a swagger and snarl that you wouldn’t find in most UK and US straight-up punk bands. It was around this time we started to see the word “RAWK” appear on price stickers at Birdman sound. How else do you describe music that takes every element from traditional rock and roll, chews it up and spits it back at you as loud and mean as you can handle it? The Turks were the first band to get me to really see the potential in mixing genres and attitudes, something they expanded on with Information Highway Revisited (still my favourite record of theirs).

Even though they were basically my heroes, my fondest memories of the band aren’t from when I got to open for them. They were awesome dudes, even tolerated an interview for our zine (by people far more qualified and less drunk), and the packed Upstairs Club crowd was the rowdiest I’d see for a while. It also isn’t any other time I saw them live, either. Those were all amazing experiences, for sure, but nothing trumps putting a record on your turntable and fucking hearing THIS.